Whether you’re building a recruitment process for the first time or want to optimize a current one, here are some guidelines to find the right candidate.
Differentiate your must-haves from your nice-to-haves
Before writing your job description, the first step in any recruitment process is to figure out what exactly you need… Which candidate skills and qualities are a must? Nice-to-haves?
Know the role like the back of your hand
This will make you a more effective recruiter, and help you:
- Write a job description that engages the right talent
- Proactively source qualified candidates
- Set realistic expectations with your hiring manager
- Reduce your time to hire while increasing your quality of hire
Write a job description
The average job description is an undifferentiated bucket list of skills. Effective job descriptions should be unique to your company and highlight results and impact, rather than requirements, so you get the right talent excited to jump in to the challenges of the role. Paint a picture of what the role entails and what success will look like. Use a casual tone so your candidates perceive you as friendly and human.
Conduct interviews
The purpose of the initial phone interview is to make sure that you advance appropriate and qualified people to the next stage. Are there any glaring red flags? Do they meet the baseline “must haves?” Are compensation expectations in the ballpark?
The onsite (or online) interview is perhaps the most make-or-break moment of the entire recruitment process. This is when you get the information you need to say goodbye to a candidate or extend them an offer to become part of your team. Therefore, it is critical to establish exactly what you are looking for in a candidate before they come in.
It’s important to collect interview feedback quickly. Right after an interview is when information is freshest in everybody’s mind, and the ability to make a quick decision and get an offer out is a competitive advantage.
Reference checks
Resist the urge to make an offer until you’ve done thorough reference checks. The cost of hiring a mediocre performer into your organization is great, and it’s ultimately in your team’s best interest to take reference checks seriously.
Make the offer
Once you’ve made a decision to extend an offer to a candidate, you want to move fast. You don’t want to risk another company coming in with a competing offer, and moving quickly makes it clear to the candidate that you are excited to welcome them to the team.
If you know the candidate will need a hard sell, use the motivations information you gathered throughout the interview process – like why they’re excited about your company and what they’re looking for in their next job – to remind them why your offer is a good fit.
Provide a positive candidate experience
The need for a great candidate experience can make or break whether a candidate decides to join your team.
In fact, 83 percent of talent say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once liked, while 87 percent of talent say a positive interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once doubted.
Source: LinkedIn Talent Trends Report
Ready to build your talent pipeline and proactively source candidates? Contact CIMA’s talent management team to find the right candidate, right now!
